Case Study /

60 key sales leaders given a standardised sales planning tool and equipped to coach their own sales teams to achieve consistent results

A strategic approach to sales leadership that ensures global consistency

“People were using many different methods and approaches and none provided clarity on how they were going to develop the business from a strategic perspective.”

01/ The Client Aggreko is the global leader in the rental of power and temperature control. It helps companies increase profits by creating opportunities, solving problems and reducing risk using its unique network of global locations, equipment and technical services. With over a 100 locations in 29 countries it offers 24/7 services to companies across a variety of industries. .

02/ The Challenge Aggreko had grown very quickly and exceeded its aim of doubling the size of the business in the last five years. It’s now about to embark on the next phase which is to double the size of its business again, in the next seven years. However, to do this, Aggreko recognised the need to make a significant investment in developing leadership capability in three key areas: • • •

Sales Planning and Execution Sales Coaching Building High Performance Teams

“The company had made little investment in our leaders around sales leadership,” explains Chris Smart, Head of Sales Effectiveness for Local Business at Aggreko. “There was also a lack of investment in our sales engineers in terms of sales training.” The need for sales training was addressed by implementing an in-house programme called Triple E (Effective, Efficient, Execute) that was rolled out across the whole company. However, there was still a real development need around sales leadership for which Aggreko required external assistance, particularly in terms of a proper sales planning tool. “When I came into the business I experienced huge variances in terms of the quality of sales planning,” says Chris. “People were using many different methods and approaches and none provided clarity on how they were going to develop the business from a strategic perspective.”

“What rogenSi brought to us was a sales planning process that we could follow and adopt universally right across Aggreko.”

03/ The Solution

“They were able to meet a very alien audience and win them over by demonstrating very in-depth knowledge of who we are and how we approached sales training,”

The second part of the programme was to run a two-day sales coaching module to equip the Area Sales Managers with the skills to coach their sales engineers to create and implement their own territory sales plans for the first time, which was a challenging task. “We had some very experienced sales engineers that knew their markets and customers but had never been held accountable for scoping out the monthly revenue from these clients before,” explains Chris. “It was a fairly challenging process for them.” The coaching module also ensured that these managers were equipped to coach their teams through Triple E, the company’s internal sales training programme.

rogenSi was engaged to deliver a three phase programme to address these challenges. The first phase was based on using a sale’s planning tool called ‘Shape of Result’, which encourages participants to map their current year, an aspirational year where they focus on how they want their business to be shaped in three years’ time, and a middle shape which reflects where they would like to be in a year’s time. Aggreko’s Area Sales Managers were introduced to these models and then used them to build Sales Plans. The aim of this module was to create a structure and standardise the process for sales planning which had previously been done differently in every region. This initial phase was vital to the success of the whole programme. “We’re a very process driven organisation,” explains Chris. “What rogenSi brought to us was a sales planning process that we could follow and adopt universally right across Aggreko.”

The final part of the programme focused on how to build high performing teams. “One of the key metrics in our business is called Net Promoter Score, which is an indicator of customer satisfaction for the service we provide,” says Chris. “Our scores were inconsistent and the metric score is affected by three teams: sales, operations and administration.” The objective of this third module was to enable those teams to understand the interdependency between them and learn to work together in a more aligned way to provide consistently excellent customer service. In total 30 Area Sales Managers from Asia, China, Australia, India, South Africa and South and Central America went through this three phase programme which was sponsored by the Regional Directors. As part of the pre-diagnostics for the programme, the consultants from rogenSi took the time to visit the company’s local business units, talk to sales staff and see the business tools they used. This work really paid off in terms of demonstrating and understanding Aggreko’s business language and tools when they started the training. “They were able to meet a very alien audience and win them over by demonstrating very in-depth knowledge of who we are and how we approached sales training,” says Chris. “They did a good job of tuning into what our culture was all about.”

This programme 04/ Achievements has standardised As a result of this sales and marketing leadership programme Aggreko has 30 Area Sales Managers who are all equipped with the same the way Aggreko sales planning tool and have each used it to develop a strategic sales approaches sales plan. This has ensured that Aggreko has consistency across its global sales network and a structured approach that guarantees results. and client plans “Everyone is now using the same process and the same tools, which is across the globe, a significant achievement,” says Chris. “Shape has become part of our language. It’s always an endorsement of the quality of an intervention and has built a when people start using the language they learned on a programme in coaching culture their everyday conversations with people.” within the sales This programme has standardised the way Aggreko approaches sales and client plans across the globe, and has built a coaching teams that will culture within the sales teams that will drive sales force effectiveness drive sales force in the future. “One of our major priorities for 2013 is embedding this effectiveness in the programme into our business” concludes Chris. future. 05/ The Legacy The sales and marketing leadership programme has been so successful that Aggreko is considering ways to roll it out worldwide, establishing it as the standard way of approaching sales planning and execution and embedding it within the business. Amongst the ideas currently being discussed are building an online learning tool to enable the development modules to be shared and accessed in a shortened version, and the creation of an Aggreko Sales Alumni room within LinkedIn where sales leaders can chat and share ideas.

“Overall, my view of 06/ The Verdict rogenSi is that they “rogenSi has a huge amount of credibility in our organisation and that’s been achieved by their application and commitment. We have are rock solid on some tough groups who are unforgiving if a provider doesn’t deliver a quality experience but rogenSi has come in time after time, delivered sales leadership, exactly what they promised and impressed us.” and that’s exactly Chris Smart, Head of Sales Effectiveness for Local Business – how they have Global Marketing proven to be. They did exactly what they promised. And that’s why I use them.”

What can we do for you? rogensi.com